Firefighters Still Trying To Put Out Paisley Blaze

PAISLEY — Firefighters this morning were expected to begin their third day of battling a stubborn muck fire they say must be put out to prevent a major forest fire in remote northeast Lake County.

The fire, spotted Tuesday from the Paisley fire tower, has scorched about 20 acres of brush, but it continues to burn intensely in the muck underneath. The muck is a decaying organic material similar to peat.

The only way to end the threat of wildfire is to saturate every inch of the smoldering, black earth with water, said Bob Duty, Lake County supervisor for the state Division of Forestry.

''It's not a very glamorous fire to fight,'' he said. ''It's just hot, sweaty and dirty.''

Although the area is very sparsely populated and no homes are in danger, the fire must be extinguished to prevent it from spreading to about 3,000 acres of surrounding pine and palmetto scrub, Duty said.

Another concern is smoke, which could cause severe problems along heavily traveled State Road 44 about 3 miles to the east, he said.

Pumps are drawing water from a canal that snakes near the fire, which is confined to a swampy clearing about 3 miles east of the end of Maggie Jones Road, near Lake Tracy. The clearing once served as a muck farm, Duty said.

The biggest weapon firefighters have is a Go-Tract, a converted snow machine that crawls over the soggy ground on 3-foot-wide tracks. Duty said the machine can haul 360 gallons of water to places where people couldn't even walk.

Forest rangers, aided by Lake County volunteer firefighters hauling water to the scene, fought the muck fire from 3 p.m. to midnight Tuesday, then fought it again all day Wednesday.

Duty said Wednesday the firefighters were planning to be hard at work again this morning.

''We get about a dozen of these muck fires a year in Lake County, but most people don't know about them because they're in such remote places,'' he said. The Paisley blaze is a particularly nasty one because low rainfall and low humidity have teamed up to dry the muck and make the fire more intense, he said.

It was not known Wednesday how the fire got started, but Duty said he plans to hunt for clues today.

If all goes well, he said, firefighters are hoping to snuff out the fire by about 6 p.m. Friday.